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Device Tests for Breast Cancer

Posted on: Friday, 29 April 2005, 03:00 CDT

As her breasts were being scanned for signs of cancer, Carole Ferrang did something she couldn't imagine doing during a mammogram - she nearly dozed off.

Mrs. Ferrang was undergoing an experimental diagnostic test at the Medical College of Georgia that uses electricity instead of X- rays to search for signs of malignant cells. Its inventor hopes that if it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration in a couple of years, it will become a first-line screening that can be done painlessly and much more cheaply in a doctor's office.

Called Homologous Electrical Diff-erence Analysis, the test employs a series of electrodes placed on the breasts to send varying currents of electricity through the breast tissue. Cancer causes cells to become much less resistant to the signals, meaning the electricity would pass more easily through that tissue, said Leslie W. Organ, the chief medical officer of Z-Tech Inc., which created the system.

"This decrease occurs for two reasons," he said by phone from Toronto. "First of all, there is increased blood flow to a malignant area so it is easier for the current to flow. And then, in addition, the walls of cells become somewhat more porous from an electrical point of view and that also decreases the impedance (resistance to the current). So we measure electrical impedance and we search to detect an area that has a significant decrease in electrical impedance."

The result, which the doctor should be able to read immediately, would give them an "index of suspicion," Dr. Organ said. A positive result would need to be followed up by other diagnostic tests, he said.

"It is not the intent to replace mammography but what we do hope to do is position it as the first-order screening," Dr. Organ said, something that for instance could be part of an annual physical. "If (the test) is negative then, as with mammography now, the patient would be asked to return in a year, no problem. However, if it is positive, then that's when the imaging technology such as mammography and ultrasonography come in."

There are some obvious advantages to using this first instead of mammography, said Helen Fain, who is helping to coordinate the study at MCG.

"There's no exposure to ionizing radiation," she said. "And we're looking at early, early breast cancer screening. It could be done on 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds with family histories or (in) any doctor's office - they don't have to go to the radiology suite. It's really exciting."

If the test turns out to be equal to mammograms in diagnostic ability, it might be more widely used, said James H. Craft, a diagnostic radiologist at MCG who is heading up that part of the study.

The system is being tested in 20 centers around the world in a study that Dr. Organ said will probably last about a year and a half, and hopefully include about 8,000 women. If it proves equal to mammograms, the company would make an application to the FDA and the tests could be widely available in about 2 1/2 years, Dr. Organ said.

Because the breast is squeezed tightly between two plates during the mammogram, many women complain of discomfort or pain, said Pam Anderson, the director of the Breast Health Center at University Hospital.

"There are a lot of women who are afraid of mammograms" for that reason, she said.

There was no comparison between the mammogram Mrs. Ferrang had the week before and this test, where the participants don't even feel the low levels of electricity.

"No pain, no discomfort," she said.

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213

or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.

Source: Augusta Chronicle, The

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